Postings by Ridley

The only one who can determine what "being a dog" is really all about, is the dog himself

My dogs are never unhappy on a structured walk. But I can't say they would PREFER to be on one, versus one where they can explore and have a bit more freedom.

Part of being a responsible dog owner, is understand your's and your dog's limits. If you have a reactive dog, obviously don't put him in situations where he is likely to encounter something that will trigger his reactivity. That doesn't mean he should never be allowed to, as they say, stop and stiff the roses

Ridley was very reactive for a long period. Part of his cure was structure... and then part was freedom. I never STOPPED letting him do the things he enjoyed doing. I just knew when it was time to cinch up and keep control, and when it was ok to loosen up a little.

One thing I love about Ridley is that he was never mouthy. Mulder left scars on my arms from when he was a puppy, the worst puppy biter I've ever known, and I was prepared for the worst getting a puppy that was his paternal uncle... yet Ridley never even tried. He has always been happy just to chew on whatever toy I gave him, and is still like that to this day.

Excellent, they will be from a VERY close breeding to the one Ridley came off of- which has produced some very nice dogs. Ridley is a special soul and would not have cut it as a service dog, but he has a full sibling who is a trained therapy dog and several others who do other service work. Over all, Lux produces very nice puppies, and Xenna (Hetja's dam) is pretty nice too.

Summers in full force and tracking is done until the fall when the weather is a bit more reasonable. Ridley has done amazing, his instructor feels he will easily have his TD by the end of the year.

But in mean time, I have found another job for him!

The park where I take the dogs has several lacrosse fields, all backed up by a bunch of woods and creeks. Obviously, some balls get lost... and we've discovered Ridley's talent for finding them.

The first time he did it I was worried he was after a snake, he dove into the bushes like a wild man... but to my surprise, reappeared a moment later with a lacrosse ball! Interested, I walked along the tree line and gave him his track command ("search"), and in a matter of minutes he produced 3 more lacrosse balls and a couple of tennis balls.

So now its a game. I send him in, he nabs the ball, he gets to play tug as his reward! Today we went back and tried again, scoring a total of 6 balls (one he carried off into the creek and dropped, sadly they do not float!).

I'm going to keep record of our little outings from now on... and once I have a good stockpile of balls, I'm going to bring them all back to the lacrosse teams and present them with a little surprise!